Sept 08: How do we like our eggs in the morning? Fertilised, or completely and most definitely unfertilised?

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

A brand spanking new thread where we can chat about the state of our eggs, SWI, our veg patches and any other topic we fancy

Our potatoes have gone crazy too, the plants are huge. The sugar snap peas grew really big but don't seem to have as many peas as they look like they should. Tomatoes and peppers are only flowering which is good as will mean they won't be ready when we are on holiday which is what usually happens. The strawberries are quite slow too.
No idea how the carrots and parsnips are doing though- they look good above ground though.
Have a horrible feeling that the blueberries will be ready while we're away though and as there's hundreds on them on the plant that will be very annoying.

DS2 today was walking about looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars and walked straight into the front door. His face was priceless, he was clearly confused at how it was so close. I laughed lots.

DS1 and I spent the afternoon painting flags for the 4 countries left in the World Cup, he's so into it it's unreal (I had a goal disallowed for offside when playing football with him earlier) and has been promised he can stay up for the final if he's good all week.

Oh and dh has been told 5 out of 19 people in his group at work are being made redundant but won't know for 3 months!

debi Sorry to hear your DH's news. Is he going to wait and see what happens or do some CV updating job-hunting in the mean time just in case?

I really wish I could grow fruit and veg it would save me a fortune but I am just not a natural gardener.

Debi Robyn is fascinated by the World Cup. Whenever the commentators get excited about a near miss she starts cheering and clapping thinking someone has scored. Dp has a small blow up goal and they like to play mini football most days.

Hi folks
Sorry I have not been around for a while. Life just seems too hectic all the time. I have actually caught up on all your news.
I have purchased a "vegtrug" from ideal world last week. Its massive. I think you gardeners have inspired me. Anyway my dh has hammered it all together and now I am awaiting my soft fruit plants too arrive. I will probably be too late for this year but nevermind.
cc try not too worry about the bumps you can feel on your sons groins. They are called lymph glands to help fight infections and in some children they can always be felt. Especially after an illness. My ds1 has lots that feel like pebbles in his neck. You are doing the right thing getting them checked out though.
Hope your getting into the swing of having two little one pony. My advise is only to be as organised as possible and dont forget to laugh when it goes wrong as it so ofen will!
Doh! just had a phone call from the school my ds1 5 has been lifting girls skirts up. How do I deal with this one!
chat soon xx

Oh so much to catch up on. Sending hopeful vibes to everyone TTC (have read the book recommended and now find myself checking my cervical fluid every day!!!!)

Hope your DH has good news Debi

Have done my back in today so am on sofa. No idea how I'll cope - work is easy, I'm working from home for the rest of the week but how will I pick C up and put her to bed??!

And looks like we're toilet training whether we want to or not. C keeps on taking her nappy off and asking for a wee wee on the toilet. She's stil happy to have a nappy on in the daytime but takes it off the minute we're home. We've bought knickers and toilet seats/steps etc so we're ready but I don't want to push her. On the other hand, I read that doing both nappies and toilet is confusing and you should just go for it.

What to do? Any advice?

And C really wants a big girl bed - she keeps seeing upsy daisy and getting into our bed and pulling the covers up. So think we'll go for it at the weekend. She's turned into a little girl all of a sudden!

Debs I'm not a natural gardner - I don't actually especially enjoy it. I don't mind it, and it gives me something to do while T is in the garden, but it's not my favourite thing to do. Saves us money though. Beans are going bonkers, and we had dinner with spinach, carrots and onions from the garden today. In fact, dinner for 3 (with leftovers for 2 tomorrow) cost about £2.

Debi nightmare about your DH, hopefully he won't be picked.

Only 1 more week of childcare (next week), and then I have to look after T all by myself! Quite excited.

Fanny thanks so much for the tests, they arrived a couple of days ago, but haven't been on here to say thanks.

In other news, we've got a wedding venue! We looked at somewhere really nice last week while we were camping (all the way in East Sussex. We live in West Sussex), and on the way back from visiting the venue we popped in to see my (v rich) cousin, and they offered us their massive house and garden for the reception! Am completely overwhelmed and very excited. And 2 grand better off than we might otherwise have been. Also, they throw loads of parties, so have 100 sets of cutlery and crockery, so we don't need to hire that. Yay!

Although am going to have to accept that we'll be marrying with a newborn or me heavily pregnant (assuming I ever get pregnant). We're vaguely working on the basis that we'll go for July next year, so the oldest we could have (if I got pregnant this month, which seems unlikely given my track record to date) is about a 3 month old. Eeek!

mama I hope you get the message across to your DS1 ok! Sorry for chuckling at your expense!

mrsA I've heard the 'don't confuse them' message with nappies and pants. The GF method is to spend a couple of days at home completely focussing on the task in hand, then take them out on a short playdate to someone's house who doesn't mind a bit of wee on their floor. Also once they're taking themselves to the potty, move the potty closer to the toilet til they're taking themselves to the bathroom.
That's the theory anyway. What would I know? DD is still wetting herself daily after a year! We've made a sticker chart for holiday next week where she can choose a reward of a babyccino, ice cream, or go on a ride. There's a ladder and each sticker gets her closer to the top where the prize is!

She's been practicing and practicing on the xylophone at our friend's house and this morning gave a perfect rendition of 'twinkle star'. If at 3.3 she can play recognisable tunes on a musical instrument then why on EARTH won't she just go to the toilet????!!!!!!!!
And relax.

On the star topic, DD always does star jumps on the trampoline. DS usually doesn't bother with the trampoline but today got on, said 'star jump' and ran round doing the actions to twinkle star! It was possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Endo pain started up again today Less than three weeks til my consultants appt. Which means less than three weeks to find the letter with all the details on

MrsA if she is taking her nappies off at home and wanting to use the toilet let her. I'm sure the guidelines are if they know when they are weeing/pooing and can get to the toilet it is a good idea. Plus summertime means less clothes to fiddle about with and quicker drying.

DH will update his cv which is on all the websites like monster and have a look for another job. Just round here though, as we only moved into this house 6 months ago we're not going for trying to go back to Scotland now. The potentially good thing is that if he finds a job he can offer himself up for voluntary redundancy at any point before the 3 months are up and would then end up with a bit of extra cash. Unfortunatly though the company have just changed the reundancy terms to make them rubbish compared to what they were.

MrsA go for it, if she's acting like she's ready you might as well give it a go. Think of the money saved on nappies (unless you're using reusables in which case that's not relevant)

Thanks for all the commemnts. We're thinking of waiting a week or so longer as she's going into a full bed this weekend and we don't want to do too much at once.

C amazes me sometimes. At the weekend I had to carry her out of a restaurant screaming (C, not me , although I felt like it) as she had a full blown tantrum just as the ice cream arrived.
She's also scratching every child she can at nursery

But when it comes to hair brushing, we have finally cracked it! She hated having her hair brushed but I've found that if I sing the Black Eyed Peas 'I've got a feeling' while I do it, she sits like an angel. Just bizarre but makes me laugh

mrsA isn't it bizarre what works? We discovered that we can brush dd's hair if we give her another brush to choose her teddy's hair!

The happy and entirely unsurprising news from here is that mama was right and DS is fine! The doc said he has some other slightly raised lymph nodes behind his ears, and the ones in his groin are small, soft and moveable. She also felt for his liver and spleen but they're not enlarged. Hooray! She said she'd refer him to the paeds if she was worried, but she's really not. The only worrying that is that she weighed him (he's so tiny although he eats loads) and he's 10kg. I don't have his red book with me, but I'm sure 10kg isn't much. Can someone with a boy and a red book please tell me where that puts him on the centile charts at 21.5 months? He was born on the 25th but has dropped as low as the 9th in the past. thank you!

Endo pain not so bad today, but its been a very busy day so that helps.

Tonight and tomorrow we need to pack up and clean our friends' beautiful house. Can't believe we've been here for 2 weeks already! We're off on staycation tomorrow (got a holiday cottage just up the road so we can have a holiday and keep an eye on the extension!) so won't have internet access. Hope you all have a good week, looking forward to some good baby news from someone by the time I get back!!

H guys
Just checking in. Hopefully glad you got a wedding venue. I used to live in Midhurst i think thats near there. MRS A I cant believe your potty training.Also, a proper bed is definately the way forward.
I think ds1 got the message thanks carrie sorry your endo had kicked off again. Hope your extension is going well.
Mr muffin getting very brooooooody. And me ??????. We are away for the weekend without children this weekend. I CANT WAIT XXX

x threads carrie. We are on line together!

Glad ds is ok carrie, its always best you get them checked out. Happy cleaning x

Congratulations on the wedding and venue hopefully. See, I told you that someone you know will have land for you to use

Glad to hear ds is ok Carrie, sorry I've lost my red book. Don't you need to plot the height and weight to get an overall picture? Also, if you think he's healthy then don't bother about the charts, they can end up making you paranoid.

Hi Mama, does that mean you will be SWI over the weekend?!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your dh Debi. What a horrible position to be in. I hate the whole 3 months notice malarky.

DS is OBSESSED with the programme Show Me, Show me. He keeps pointing to the tv and saying 'show, show, mummeeeeee'

There are worse programmes I guess but I'd rather he didn't get obsessed by a programme quite yet

'There's MoMoBot and Tom and Stuffy, Miss Mouse and Teddington, is that everybody?............'

Hi Carrie just had a quick look at DS's old book and he is about the 15% so not super skinny. You say he eats loads so maybe he will just be lean.
Oh and ds's book is 11 years old so they might have changed a bit

Hello people - been hugely busy recently but finally had last day of work before holiday next week!
Now worrying that I don't have swimming trunks for the toddlers - is it still OK for 2 and nearly-2yo to run on beaches naked or will people tut? Luckily the house we're renting have found another travel cot so we don't have to worry about dn exploring, so can carry more stuff with us.

So tell me: what do I need to remember for a seaside holiday with two toddlers?

Morning we go I need to go get blood taken first to see if I've ovulated or not. Joy. And A needs to see the doc tomorrow. Nursery called both me and MrNC for a meeting and we thought it was a parents evening again so we'd see lovely pics of A and talk about him going to toddler room. But turns out they say he's been badly constipated for ages, whereas we thought he was fine for the last couple months and had cut down his lactulose, until this weekend when he got bad again, possibly because of teething? So rather upset and annoyed. At home he's fine and then does about 30 secs of groaning and red-face and does perfect poo - I'm not sure if that's what nursery are calling constipation. They were all eager to help get a referral to a paed, but he really doesn't seem to have much of a problem!

He still has no clue about it though. He did sit on a potty like Jessie Cat from Sing'n'Sign. And said 'meow meow'. Not quite the idea...

ROFL NC at meow meow on potty!

ITMIMI at least your DS has good taste, show me show me is a quality programme, not cartoon drivel! Show me show me lets have some fun...

Right. Must. Stop. Shopping. For. Flooring. Its cleaning time!!!

fingers crossed for your dh Debi - how horrible to not know what's going to happen

Congratulations hopefully on sorting out venues, hooray for rich cousins!

Carrie - glad to hear you got the all clear re lymph nodes. no idea about the weight thing. dd2 is 12kg, but is quite plump with that, think she's under 25th centile,and weight had actually fallen last time she was weighed. shes very busy running around though.

Had her appointment with paediatrician in winchester today - waste of time! Her skin is really bad - it is getting steadily worse, extending over more and more of her body, she often scratches til bleeds, she never has good days... and all dr said was recommended 1% hydrocortisone, which did absolutely nothing for her skin, meaning front of her legs stayed looking raw and weeping until we got a stronger cream. i don't want to use a strong cream like she has now, and only apply it to the worst bits - but if it's still not really working - what's the point in using something weaker???
She is going to have an allergy test - apparently i have to take along my own ripe tomato!!! Ex ignored the fact that she had an appointment today, trying to ring and text constantly about other things even though i'd said i was busy. then best response he could come up with was: "i had bad skin when i was young. exercise helps" how ridiculous is that

ps, hopefully I'm really excited about the wedding chat!

Splish I really sympathise on the bad skin front, as DS has bad eczema. It is also the worst it's been in ages, and I've been told that this is due to the heat, and them reacting to their own sweat. He also scratches until he bleeds and it drives me to distraction.

Hydrocortisone 1% does work for him, though, although I do need to do 7 days of morning and night before reducing it to night only for 4 and then stopping for a while.

I have been recommended Udo's oil by a friend with psoriasis and I'm going to give it a try. Also, I find that moisturising him with an emolient cream at least every time I change a nappy makes things a lot better.

Hopefully many congratulations! The venue sounds amazing. I think it'll be wonderful to be a heavily pregnant bride, Fellini style.

Carrie glad your lo is ok, and judging by the pics, your extension is going to be amazing!

Notcitrus good to see you again. Enjoy the hols. I can't wait to go on mine.

Had my 12 week scan and nuchal fold plus combined tests and it gave me a low risk of trisommy, so I'm thinking about not having an amniocentesis despite my advanced old age. Do any of you ladies have any thoughts on the subject?

Thanks Pacita - yes, coat her in emollients 3 times a day, she even asks for "cream on" when she's sore / bleeding.

re amniocentesis - I think it depends how important it is to you, to know definitely either way if there are any problems, and if you would do anything if something showed up.

splish My DC's skin flares up if we use sunscreen on it. I just try and keep them covered up now so I don't have to use it. And I swear the hard water down south dries out kids skin. And a for your X for good measure.

I think DD's back molars are coming through. She is dribbly and chewing her fingers a lot. Last night she was grizzling on and off for an hour. I think we are going to be getting through a lot of Calpol for the next few weeks.

Splish grr at your x - what a prat.

C has started getting blotchy lumps every time she goes outside. They don't bother her and we've been to docs twice, and they said it was just a rash, don't worry, so I'm not. Just looks awful.

Pacita it really is your gut instinct over amnio. What would you do if it wasn't the best news? Is this something that's vitally important to you?
I have my own views but when I was pg with C I was age 36 and had the blood test and came back low risk so didn't do anything else. i think (at 38) I'd do the same.
You could always have a second blood test at 16 weeks (my local NHS don't offer 12 week one, so I had to wait till 16 weeks).

And we still haven't made a decision on toilet training. Sigh. Apparently, toddlers become bowel aware before bladder aware, but ti seems C is the opposite. She always knows when she wants a wee but doesn't tell us if she needs a poo.

Finally, for those using TCOYF book - am I normal if I am on day 24 and my temperature hasn't gone up yet? I think I may have been better off without it as I am now worried that I'm not ovulating or have a very short luteal phase!
Sorry to moan - sometimes information is not a good idea!

Splish Ask about wet wraps. I had to use them a few years ago and they are great at hydrating the skin and it makes the hydrocortisone or steroid cream more effective. It is a bit of a pain to do but you get great relief.

NC Whenever Robyn does a poo she has a horrifed look on her face and does a groan for a few seconds. She looks like she has no idea what is going on, it is just uncomfortable.